FINALLY hockey is (sort of) back, and so is the Sound Of Hockey Podcast! The long layoff led the guys to take an unexpected break from recording, but they are happy to be back in your speakers for this new episode.
On this podcast, the guys talk through the three losses the Seattle Kraken have suffered since the Christmas holiday, as well as the latest injury and COVID news from the team. They also discuss some of the very cool off-ice developments that happened at Climate Pledge Arena during the Kraken game against the Vancouver Canucks.
Once they’ve given plenty of attention to the Kraken, John, Andy, and Darren go outside of Seattle to share their thoughts on the cancellations of the IIHF World Junior Championship and the Women’s U18 tournament. They also touch on the Winter Classic before moving on to segments.
Segments this week include Bad Boys, Goalie Gear Corner, and Three Stars.
FINALLY hockey is (sort of) back, and so is the Sound Of Hockey Podcast! The long layoff led the guys to take an unexpected break from recording, but they are happy to be back in your speakers for this new episode.
On this podcast, the guys talk through the three losses the Seattle Kraken have suffered since the Christmas holiday, as well as the latest injury and COVID news from the team. They also discuss some of the very cool off-ice developments that happened at Climate Pledge Arena during the Kraken game against the Vancouver Canucks.
Once they’ve given plenty of attention to the Kraken, John, Andy, and Darren go outside of Seattle to share their thoughts on the cancellations of the IIHF World Junior Championship and the Women’s U18 tournament. They also touch on the Winter Classic before moving on to segments.
Segments this week include Bad Boys, Goalie Gear Corner, and Three Stars.
With a break in the Seattle Kraken schedule, here is a trip around the boards, giving you some quick hits on what’s been happening with the team of late.
Game postponements
If you have not heard by now, the only game remaining on the Seattle Kraken schedule this week against the Ottawa Senators has also been postponed. The Senators added Thomas Chabot, Chris Tierney, and Zach Sanford to their COVID protocol list that already had six players on it.
The next game on the schedule will not be until Jan. 10 against the Colorado Avalanche in Denver. The Senators game postponement leaves the Kraken with seven postponed games, four home games and three road games.
With the participation of NHL players in the Winter Olympics this year officially nixed, it is a safe bet that several of the postponed games will be rescheduled during the break that was originally intended for the Olympics. That window is only 16 days, Feb. 7 to 23. If all seven games are rescheduled in that window, that will be a game every 2.3 days. That rate of days per game is consistent with the normal rate of days per game, but if we see any other cancelations, it will get tight.
The Kraken are lucky that the three away games that need to be rescheduled are all clustered in Canada so it might be possible to just add one road trip to the schedule to make up the Vancouver, Calgary, and Winnipeg games.
Here is a look at all the postponements across the league by team:
It is interesting to see that Seattle has one of the highest non-Canadian team postponements.
Seattle Kraken COVID-19 protocol list updates
Speaking of COVID, as of Monday morning, Mason Appleton was cleared off the COVID-19 protocol list and was able to practice with the team for the first time since the Christmas holiday break. Just as Appleton was coming off, Alexander Wennberg was added to the COVID protocol, joining Jeremy Lauzon who has been on since Jan. 1. With the postponement of the Ottawa game, both Lauzon and Wennberg are likely to be cleared before the Kraken head to Colorado for their next scheduled game on Monday.
Tanev surgery updates
Fan favorite and overall maniac, Brandon Tanev, underwent successful knee surgery on Dec. 30. The team is reporting that he should be ready for the start of the 2022-23 NHL season.
Brandon Tanev had successful knee surgery on Dec. 30 and is expected to return for the start of the 2022-23 NHL season.
Monday-morning quarterback: ‘What’s wrong with the Kraken?’ edition
The Kraken have certainly been struggling to get in the win column lately. After two competitive games against the Flyers and Flames last week, the Kraken never got their footing on Saturday night against the Canucks. Seems that everyone had an opinion on what is wrong with the Kraken Monday morning:
All three articles give their best guess at what is wrong, and each author’s take probably has a little truth to the Kraken’s shortcomings this season. Most of the authors reference preseason analytical models that predicted the Kraken to be a competitive playoff team, which makes me wonder if maybe the models were wrong from the start. The articles are worth a read if you want to understand some of the theories being floated around the Kraken’s cold start to the season.
In case you missed it
In the feel-good story of the week, read about how one Seattle fan might have saved the life of the Canucks’ Assistant Equipment Manager, Red Hamilton.
After alerting @Canucks Asst. Equipment Manager Brian "Red" Hamilton of a cancerous mole on his neck, the #SeaKraken & Vancouver teamed up to surprise Nadia Popovici with $10K for medical school.
Climate Pledge Arena announced they will be hosting a WHL game between the Seattle Thunderbirds and Everett Silvertips on Feb. 26. Tickets go on sale Jan. 10.
Seattle, are you ready for a 𝗕𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱? 🌊
[Sigh.] Well, that was another discouraging loss for the Seattle Kraken, who have now dropped five in a row and eight of their last nine. While there were cool things happening off the ice at Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday, what happened on the ice was ugly at times and ended in a 5-2 defeat. Here are our Three Takeaways from the second Kraken loss of the year to the Vancouver Canucks.
Takeaway #1: Tough turnovers cost Kraken against Canucks
Will Borgen had a fantastic game Thursday against the Flames, connecting on multiple stretch passes to generate offense and jumping up in the rush like a veteran offensive defenseman. On Saturday, Borgen was the last Kraken player to touch the puck before two of Vancouver’s goals.
The first Canucks goal, which came at 8:53 of the first period, was especially painful for Borgen and the Kraken. The young defenseman was trying to make a breakout pass to Calle Jarnkrok, but as he released the puck, Nils Hoglander hit him in the corner. The pass missed Jarnkrok by a country mile and instead went right onto the tape of skilled rookie Vasily Podkolzin, who fired it home.
The third goal against, which came early in the third period, was—to the credit of the Canucks—created by a good forechecking play by Juho Lammikko. But again, it was Borgen from whom he stripped the puck, and a second later Tyler Motte put it in the back of Seattle’s net.
Tyler Motte benefits off a wonderful forechecking effort, pulling up and wiring one home to double the Vancouver lead!#Canuckspic.twitter.com/qCbrEKFiii
Some blame could be placed on Philipp Grubauer’s handling of the puck here as well, as he may have handcuffed Borgen with a delayed four-foot pass. Even so, it looked like Borgen had enough time to make a play.
“We put two pucks directly on their tape in scoring areas,” coach Dave Hakstol said after the game. “That can’t happen. That’s the bottom line… I look at the first goal and the third goal. Those are pucks that are in our possession that ended up on their tape, really without a whole lot of pressure.”
Borgen redeemed himself by scoring his first NHL goal later in the frame on a nice shot from the point past a Ryan Donato screen.
The tough thing for Borgen and others like Haydn Fleury and to a lesser degree Carson Soucy is that there are eight defensemen on this team. When glaring mistakes happen, Hakstol’s decision on who to scratch for the following game becomes a bit easier.
Borgen wasn’t alone in making defensive gaffes on Saturday. Vancouver’s fourth goal was like something out of the Benny Hill Show. Mark Giordano and Jamie Oleksiak ran into each other behind the net. Giordano gave Oleksiak the old can opener trick, getting his stick tangled between Oleksiak’s legs. Oleksiak fell and ripped Giordano’s stick out of his hands, and sure enough, Vancouver came away with the puck, which Conor Garland eventually deposited in the Kraken goal.
For the third game in a row, the Kraken conceded a goal within a minute of scoring at the other end in the third period. In the previous two games, those goals against represented the tying goal for Philadelphia and the winning goal for Calgary.
On Saturday, Seattle was battling to get back in the game after Borgen scored to atone for his second booboo. But the Garland goal—the one caused by Giordano and Oleksiak comically running into each other—came just 46 seconds after Borgen’s tally.
Hakstol shrugged it off, saying he doesn’t think giving up quick response goals after scoring is a problem for this team and that they had addressed it after the previous two games. But Adam Larsson dug into it a bit more.
“Trust me, we’re trying not to get scored on,” Larsson said. “It’s a hard league. It’s something we really need to figure out. It’s been an issue for us, and we have talked about it. I think we should expect the push and… It’s frustrating, but at the same time, we have had some answer for those goals too, so it goes both ways.”
When we tweeted that quote last night, one of our followers, Kevin Alschuler, PhD, a sports psychologist, replied with a very interesting thread explaining what’s happening for Seattle and why the team is giving up these response goals. We found it interesting, so give that a read here!
Takeaway #3: Feel-good moments at Climate Pledge Arena
The feel-good story of 2022 so far stems from this tweet that went out from the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday morning, prior to their game against the Kraken.
Red Hamilton and Nadia Papovici reunited before this second meeting between these teams. Papovici was then honored on the Jumbotrons, and it was announced that together the Kraken and Canucks would be giving her $10,000 toward her med school tuition.
There were other cool game-ops things that happened Saturday as well, as Rod Masters—the organist from Slap Shot—made his triumphant debut for the Kraken. He played both national anthems before the game, then during the game was allowed to play Lady of Spain in its entirety. This time, Reg Dunlop did not rudely rip up his sheet music and scream at him to never play it again.
The Kraken also welcomed 98-year-old Eunice to her first game at Climate Pledge Arena. She shared with Strawberry, the arena host, that her 99th birthday is coming up in two weeks. So with Masters leading the way, the crowd in attendance sang Happy Birthday to Eunice.
On a 20-hour trip to Estero, FL, to play the Florida Everblades, the bus carrying the Cincinnati Cyclones broke down somewhere in rural Georgia. It was miserably humid inside the faulty coach, but going outside meant being swarmed by mosquitoes and other creepy crawlies. So the Cyclones opted to spend most of the several-hour delay inside the sweltering vehicle, where they sweated it out but at least got relief from the bugs.
As Everett Fitzhugh, now the radio play-by-play voice of the Kraken, and the team fanned themselves inside the bus, there were players that were dealing with various injuries and needed attention from the team’s trainer. “So our trainer pulled out the table and started doing treatment on the side of the road in this abandoned gas station parking lot,” Fitzhugh said with a laugh. The treatment was given, bugs be damned.
Then there was the time when—on the road back from Indianapolis—a major snowstorm had the team’s driver white-knuckling the steering wheel and keeping the speed to about 20 miles per hour on the freeway. He eventually pulled into a Wal-Mart parking lot, where the whole group slept on the bus until about 9 a.m. They then got back on the road and rolled into Cincinnati with just a couple hours to spare before a 2 p.m. home game. Remarkably, the Cyclones won that game.
This was life in the ECHL. Fitzhugh wouldn’t trade those experiences for the world.
Rising through the broadcast ranks, Fitzhugh got his start as a student calling games for the Bowling Green University Falcons. He spent time in the USHL, then the ECHL, and eventually got a mysterious email from Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke that he first ignored, assuming it was spam. He ultimately replied to the message and had a conversation with Leiweke that led to his ascension to the NHL.
The ECHL, AHL, NCAA, and CHL are all meant to develop players on the ice. But what is often forgotten is that team employees who help run operations off the ice are honing their own skills to try to reach the upper echelons of sport.
The arrival of the NHL’s 32nd franchise to the Puget Sound area has allowed dreams to come to fruition on the ice, in the broadcast booth, and in the team’s offices. Decades of hard work and perseverance for people like Fitzhugh have finally paid off, thanks to the birth of the Seattle Kraken. And while there are similarities in the paths taken to get here, each individual has a story to tell about what they went through to work at hockey’s highest level.
The juice is worth the squeeze
One of Fitzhugh’s colleagues on the airwaves is Mike Benton, the studio host you hear between periods of Kraken games on AM 950 KJR. He has many similar memories from his own days with the Stockton Thunder and Alaska Aces of the ECHL and the Everett Silvertips of the WHL.
He remembers the fear he felt when—on a ride from Medicine Hat to Calgary during the 2019-20 season—the Silvertips were jolted awake with the violent swerving of the team bus in 30-mile-per-hour winds at 2 a.m.
Benton also recalls the occasional dread of shepherding entire ECHL teams through airports to catch commercial flights and avoid canceling or delaying games due to travel mishaps. Yes, he was the radio guy, but in developmental leagues, you wear a lot of hats, and one of Benton’s hats was de facto travel manager.
Mike Benton spent six years as the director of broadcasting and public relations for the Everett Silvertips. (Photo/Everett Silvertips)
“I am begging and pleading with anybody who’s got an official airline uniform on if they could communicate to the ground control over in Denver,” Benton remembers after a team’s flight was delayed en route to its layover stop. “If the next flight can seriously hold up the doors for us and ask our airplane if they can let our team off first, because it’s going to be just a major catastrophe to then try to get flights rearranged, to get bags rearranged all of that.”
On this occasion, the airline did hold the plane, as the whole team sprinted through Denver International Airport and got on their connecting flight to Boise. As the last player stepped on board, the flight attendants closed the door and away they went.
The resources in those lower leagues are more scarce than in the NHL, but for Benton, it was worth going the extra mile—both literally and figuratively—to be able to do what he loves for a living.
“It’s the one line of work I find true happiness with,” Benton says. “For what I do and for the people that I can connect with, it’s been a dream come true for me and a great ride.”
Current experiences prepare you for future endeavors in mysterious ways
De’Aira Anderson, now the corporate communications manager for the Kraken, also fits into the category of having risen through developmental leagues to reach the pinnacle of the sport. She took a slightly different route than Fitzhugh and Benton, though. Anderson got her start in hockey as a social media intern for the University of Pittsburgh men’s ice hockey team. She later became the communications and operations director for the Syracuse men’s hockey team, before leaving the sports world for a couple of years and working for InkHouse, a media and marketing agency.
The arrival of the pandemic—terrible as it was—eventually brought a positive change for Anderson, who found herself furloughed from her position at InkHouse. “When I first started working at my old agency, I told them, ‘I probably won’t quit for anything, but if there’s one thing I definitely will quit for, it’s if I get an NHL job.’”
Unexpectedly out of work, Anderson applied for an open position with the expansion Kraken. What initially appeared to be a major bump in the road ended up being the catalyst for Anderson landing her dream job. “I tried on a whim and somehow I convinced [the Kraken] to hire me, which is awesome, and I’ve been here ever since.”
It’s funny how some moments in your career prepare you for bigger and better things later in life, and at the time you may not even realize it’s happening.
“When I was working at Syracuse, I had the fortunate ability to start their communications program for their hockey team up there,” Anderson says, referencing the introduction of Syracuse’s NCAA Division I women’s program. “The Kraken are a brand new franchise, so I got to start from the ground up and again have a heavy input on how we built our social presence and how we came up in the community.”
Sure, Syracuse University’s hockey program is a smaller operation than an NHL team, but there’s no question in Anderson’s mind that her experience there helped her get ready for her current role. And the organization that she helped build there is still going strong, as employees and interns have come and gone, following in Anderson’s footsteps with the Orange.
“I didn’t expect to be like a catalyst for other people when I was on this trailblazing path to becoming what I wanted to become,” she says. “So I think that’s kind of cool because I was like, ‘Well, I don’t think that was what I was expecting.’ I was just really focusing on myself, but having a positive impact when you’re not even trying to [impact others] is really cool.”
Developmental leagues bring development for staff as well as players
While Benton, Fitzhugh, and Anderson all took slightly different routes to the NHL, it is easy to find parallels in their respective journeys. The most glaring connection between the three is that they all found value in juggling many different roles and responsibilities. In prior positions, the teams that employed them had fewer resources, lower budgets, and a fraction of the staffing in place.
“I wore so many different hats,” Fitzhugh said of his time in the ECHL. “I was the PR director, I was a social media manager, I was on the marketing side, I was team services. I did all the travel and hotels and meals and bus schedules and all that stuff, and oh, by the way, I had to broadcast 72 games a year.”
Says Benton of his time with the Silvertips in the WHL: “There was a greater ask of me to really help grow our brand on a digital side when I wasn’t on the air, which I was very, very happy to do. Those [different responsibilities] pretty much hit on all cylinders with what I had trained for, coming up as a college student, an intern, and an entry level employee.”
Fitzhugh estimates that at the ECHL level, he did the jobs of 120 of the approximately 200 people that are now employed by the Kraken. But he sees that as a testament to the quality of talent the organization has hired and the expectations that they have for themselves. “I think it gives you such an appreciation for just how hard everyone in our organization has worked and is continuing to work to put this product on and to be the best team in the best venue in the best organization in the NHL.”
Dreams do come true
Perhaps the 20-hour bus rides or the sprints through airports are metaphors for the journeys that folks like Fitzhugh, Benton, and Anderson have been on in trying reach this level of the sport they all love so dearly. And perhaps that’s why all three were so elated when they got offered jobs to work either for the team itself or—in Benton’s case—for its broadcast partner.
So what do you do when you get the call offering you your dream job, something you’ve been striving for your entire adult life and maybe even beyond? You cry, you smile, you hug, and you call your loved ones.
Knowing she had interviewed, Anderson says her parents had been checking in daily to see if she had any news. When she finally found out she was getting hired, she called them, along with her grandma, on a group FaceTime. “They were like, ‘Oh, we know that you’re calling to tell us you got it!’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, and I am really excited!’”
Benton says he did “about 15 Tiger Woods fist pumps,” then called his wife, Amy, who had been so supportive of him chasing his dream over the years. Together, they then called their loved ones and shared the news. “It’s one of those things that you always think of and you always dream and wonder, ‘What’s it going to be like?’ You put so much hard work and so much intense passion into what you do. It’s like when the moment finally hits you, it’s almost like you have an out-of-body experience.”
Fitzhugh remembers taking the call on speaker phone and sharing the very special moment with his wife, Shelly. “We were laughing and we were crying and we were so excited,” he says. “Then the first person that I called obviously was my mom. And you know, she’s over the moon and ecstatic. She was like, ‘Oh, my son’s going into that dream job!’”
When Fitzhugh’s news went public, the first offer of congratulations came from a surprise caller. It was Ty Eigner, the head coach of the Bowling Green Falcons. “I could tell he was fighting back some emotion,” Fitzhugh says. “He was like, ‘You know, this is just as big as if it were one of our players. We’re so happy for you here at Bowling Green, and you know you are a member of Bowling Green hockey.’ So that was really really cool.”
For Fitzhugh, the journey came full circle when he received that call from Eigner. For Benton, Fitzhugh, Anderson, and dozens of other Kraken employees, a goal has been reached, and now together, they work to reach the loftiest goal of all.
Cover photo by Brian Liesse.
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at Sound Of Hockey and the host, producer, and editor of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is an inconsistent beer league goalie who believes that five players have to make a mistake before the puck gets to him. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFunBrown or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
Our heads are still spinning after the Kraken went from tied 3-3 with under four minutes left in the game to losing 6-4 to the Calgary Flames on Thursday. It was a downright bizarre finish, as Seattle found—in the words of Mark Giordano—another “new way to lose.”
The losses are piling up again for the Kraken. That’s four straight and seven of their last eight, and the team’s grip on last place in the Pacific Division is getting stronger by the day.
Here are our three takeaways from an exciting but ultimately disheartening Kraken loss to the Flames.
Takeaway #1: Another goal allowed seconds after scoring?!
We literally JUST talked about this. The Kraken allowed the tying goal to the Flyers on Wednesday 15 seconds after taking the lead. On Thursday, late in the third period, Jared McCann deflected a Giordano shot past Jacob Markstrom to tie the game 30 seconds after Andrew Mangiapane had put the Flames ahead on the power play. The building erupted as Seattle made it 4-4.
But as quickly as energy was injected into Climate Pledge Arena, it was then sucked right back out. This time it took just 13 seconds after Seattle scored for it to allow a crucial goal, and this time it would prove to be the game winner as Matthew Tkachuk beat Chris Driedger on a goal that he was not happy to give up.
“We failed to make a play on a puck,” coach Dave Hakstol said after the game. “We failed to make a hard play on a puck, and we didn’t get a save on an inside chance against so that’s what it is.”
Both Adam Larsson and Jeremy Lauzon had chances to get the puck out of harm’s way on the game winner, but it was bouncing around and neither player got good enough wood on it to clear it.
Regardless of how the goal went in, it’s absolutely bonkers that this happened for the second night in a row. You simply cannot immediately give up goals after scoring—especially in the third period—and expect to win. That almost always spells doom.
Takeaway #2: We may have jinxed Chris Driedger
“I just need to be better,” Driedger said after the game. “Those last two goals can’t go in.”
To be fair to Driedger, the first of the two he’s referencing was a rebound off a hard shot on a late power play, so it’s hard to blame him for that one. But he could have and perhaps should have had the game winner.
Do you think we jinxed him with this tweet?
Driedger is now over 30 saves on the night. He's played well.
As we started to field questions on Twitter about whether or not he should be getting the lion’s share of the starts over Philipp Grubauer, the wheels came off for Driedger and the Kraken as the Flames somehow scored two plus an empty netter to skate away with a late win.
If you take away the fifth pivotal goal, he really did play well. But coach Hakstol twice used the phrase “we didn’t get a save” in explaining what happened on the Tkachuk goal, and that tells us he’s not overly enamored by the play of Driedger either.
Takeaway #3: Mark Giordano likes playing against his old team
Because we enjoy a little positivity around these parts from time to time, we’re going to throw in a couple of happier nuggets to close this thing out. First off, Mark Giordano seems to really enjoy playing against his old team. Back when the Kraken visited the Saddledome in preseason, Giordano opened the scoring.
On Thursday, he did the same thing, then added two assists on the night, setting up the Calle Jarnkrok goal nine seconds into the second period and wristing the shot that McCann deflected home to briefly tie the score in the third.
Asked if he got any joy out of the offensive outburst, Gio said, “To be honest, it would have been a lot better night if we would have picked up two points.”
[Sigh.]
Yes, the team lost, and yes it came in devastating fashion, but Giordano had his best offensive game of the season, so we thought it was worth calling that out.
Bonus Takeaway: Are stretch passes a thing now?
One thing we noticed the Kraken doing more frequently than usual on Thursday was making long stretch passes from deep in the defensive zone up through the neutral zone. Will Borgen connected on two, one of which sprung McCann for a breakaway in the second period. The other led to a great passing play that Jarnkrok just missed on late in the game.
Early in the third, Carson Soucy also connected on a long pass from behind the Kraken goal line with Jarnkrok at the far blue line. Jarnkrok went through the seam to Colin Blackwell, who then dished to Yanni Gourde at the netmouth for an easy tap in.
We asked Hakstol about this after the game to see if this is something Seattle is actively trying to do more.
“We want to have one guy pushing for space at all times,” he said. “A lot of times it’s not going to be available. We were able to generate a breakaway with it tonight, as it was available through the middle with the McCann chance in the second period. But you know we always want to have at least one guy pushing for space and at certain times two. Even if that’s just a possession play to get us out of the zone and through the neutral zone.”
So, it’s not necessarily something that was new to Seattle’s game, but it worked more than usual on Thursday. We’re curious if we start to see more offense generated from plays like this moving forward.
Hey, Happy New Year, gang! Thanks for following along in 2021. It’s been quite the ride so far.
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at Sound Of Hockey and the host, producer, and editor of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is an inconsistent beer league goalie who believes that five players have to make a mistake before the puck gets to him. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFunBrown or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
Frankly, it was a strange night at Climate Pledge Arena on Wednesday. It was great to be back in the building after a long hiatus, but with the Philadelphia Flyers playing a lifeless first two periods against the Kraken, and Seattle only capitalizing with one power-play goal through 40 minutes, the crowd was uncharacteristically quiet.
Things picked up in the third after a disallowed goal for Seattle, but the Kraken were too kind in allowing Philadelphia to remain in a game that they mostly dominated. According to Natural Stat Trick, Seattle had a 10-2 advantage in high-danger shot attempts on the night and 68.29 percent of the expected goals. On nights like that… you should win.
Let’s take a look at the latest loss by the Kraken, this one of the disappointing 3-2 overtime variety at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers.
Takeaway #1: Jeremy Lauzon scored… then he didn’t… then he did!
Jeremy Lauzon has now put the puck in the back of the net three times this season, yet he only has credit for one goal after officially scoring his first of the season on Wednesday night. Two other times, including once against the Flyers, he has had goals disallowed because of goalie interference.
With the score tied 1-1 at 5:57 of the third period, Lauzon let a shot go from the point that beat Martin Jones. The second it went in, we knew the Flyers would challenge for goalie interference, as there was certainly contact between Jaden Schwartz and Jones, and the Philadelphia netminder immediately protested.
Kraken goal (we think)!
Lauzon from the point. Jones was complaining about contact, so we shall see if this gets challenged.
After watching it a few times on his tablet, Flyers coach Mike Yeo indeed summoned the referee to his bench to indicate that he was challenging the Kraken goal. Replay showed that Schwartz made contact with Jones’ blocker a fraction of a second before the puck arrived, which was just enough reason to disallow the goal.
“It happened to me twice this year,” Lauzon said after the game. “It’s a little bit frustrating,”
Just 10 minutes later, Lauzon found the net again, and this time there was no question it would stick.
Adam Larsson, who had 22:38 of ice time despite just being cleared from COVID protocol on Wednesday morning, made a nice play to drive into the slot and draw defenders to him. He then dished to Lauzon who had snuck down to the top of the left circle. Lauzon ripped a snapshot right inside the near post to beat Jones again.
Said Lauzon, “I was happy the second one counted, but it’s hard to be happy when you lose a game.”
Takeaway #2: Giving up goals right after scoring really kills the vibe
Remember that miserable Kraken loss to the Arizona Coyotes on Nov. 6? In that one, Seattle held two-goal leads on two different occasions, but let the Coyotes score three straight and fell behind in the third period. Mark Giordano tied the score with just 1:18 left, but 13 seconds later, the Kraken turned it over and the Coyotes scored the game winner.
Remember that? Didn’t that suck?
Well, the Kraken pulled something similar against the Flyers. After Lauzon gave Seattle a lead with just 5:28 left in the game, it took James van Riemsdyk all of 15 seconds to level the score when he rifled the equalizer over Philipp Grubauer’s shoulder for his second of the night.
“We made a mistake,” coach Dave Hakstol said about the tying goal. “Our right defenseman should have been back to his post there. That allows the sword at the net front be much easier, but in reality that’s the only scoring chance we gave up all period.”
The right defenseman in this case was Jamie Oleksiak, who was also playing his first game since entering COVID protocol. If you watch the replay, he circles behind the net to the wrong side, then makes contact with his partner, Giordano, who gets crossed up about which guy to cover. It’s a miscommunication that happens in the blink of an eye, but that’s all it takes to lose track of a goal scorer in the NHL.
And yes, that’s the same JvR that the Flyers made available to the Kraken in the Expansion Draft, but we won’t go there.
There have been other instances this season when the Kraken have allowed goals in the seconds that followed a tally of their own. It’s one of those cardinal sins—along with goals against in the opening or closing minute of a period—that can have devastating consequences on the outcome of the game.
Takeaway #3: Kraken OT struggles continue against Flyers
The Kraken have now been to overtime four times this season, and they have come away with nothing more than a loser point on all four occasions. Three-on-three is a little bit of a crapshoot, and that’s what makes it so fun to watch. But there’s also a certain skillset needed for winning in overtime, and finishing ability is certainly key in that skillset.
It’s also not something that gets practiced extensively. Practice time is precious, and there are usually patterns or issues that coaches see in games that they want to clean up, so that is what they focus on in their typically short on-ice sessions.
“We haven’t had a lot of time there,” Hakstol said. “You know, tonight we gave up a breakaway. So there’s nothing hidden there. You can’t allow people to get in behind you. … Again, it’d be a good time for a timely save on that one, but ultimately we gave up a breakaway in overtime.”
To Philadelphia’s credit, it was a beautiful stretch pass through the neutral zone by Kevin Hayes to spring Ivan Provorov, who had gotten behind Marcus Johansson. Provorov then made a ridiculous move to fake Grubauer out of his jock.
Kraken back to work Thursday against Calgary Flames
The Kraken now go right back to work for their second of back-to-back games on Thursday, as the Calgary Flames come to town. The Flames got off to a… hot… start to the season, but things got derailed when essentially their entire organization got COVID a few weeks ago. Remarkably, they have not played a game since Dec. 11, and had lost four in row before getting shut down.
Even so, they remain in a playoff spot with a 15-7-6 record, a testament to how well they—and their goalie Jacob Markstrom—were playing in the early stages of the season.
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at Sound Of Hockey and the host, producer, and editor of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is an inconsistent beer league goalie who believes that five players have to make a mistake before the puck gets to him. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFunBrown or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
Our long national nightmare (the NHL’s Christmas break) is over. With the omicron variant of COVID-19 spreading like wildfire through NHL locker rooms, the league and its teams stumbled into what ended up being a prolonged break from action, as team after team shut down with too many players in protocol to compete. With seemingly no other choice, the NHL reluctantly decided to give players a longer-than-expected hiatus. Now, the NHL is back after what feels like [insert “Old Lady from Titanic saying ‘It’s been 84 years’” gif here], so we thought it would be a good time to take stock in what the Seattle Kraken have going on and their outlook for the rest of the season.
Short-term obstacle: COVID absences
Defense situation looked temporarily dire for Kraken
First, we will look at the state of the team in the immediate. The Kraken were certainly one of the clubs running on fumes as they entered the break, with defensemen Jamie Oleksiak, Carson Soucy, and Adam Larsson all testing positive in three consecutive days. Upon returning from the break, Ryan Donato, Mason Appleton, and Vince Dunn were added to that list.
Along with the three blueliners already out, Dunn’s exclusion from the lineup made things appear for a moment like Seattle would not be able to field a full defense corps as it returned to game action.
Thankfully, Soucy and Oleksiak returned to practice on Tuesday, and neither seemed to have been impacted too dramatically by their respective bouts with the virus. Larsson could be cleared to return in the coming days as well.
“Almost a little better timing for me, not really having to miss a game,” Soucy said on Tuesday. “Kind of just come back in when the team comes back. Would have liked maybe one or two more skates, but it’s a good way to get back into it with a copule games in a row here.”
Soucy’s point about timing rings mostly true for Oleksiak and Larsson as well. If Larsson can return in the next couple days, the extended holiday break really will have saved the Kraken a lot of man-games lost on the blue line. Thanks to the extra time, it appears coach Dave Hakstol will have at least three pairs of defensemen available to him for Wednesday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers, assuming nothing changes throughout the day.
Some COVID challenges remain for forward group as well
There are also issues up front for the Kraken. In the short term, Donato—who had scored in three-straight games prior to the break—is in protocol, as is Appleton. Colin Blackwell and Riley Sheahan are back to fill depth roles, but Blackwell indicated that COVID took a lot out of him, so it may take him some time to get back up to speed.
One big positive (from being COVID negative) is that Yanni Gourde is expected to see his first game action since Dec. 9 on Wednesday. Obviously, getting one of the team’s top two centers back should give the Kraken a lift.
Long-term obstacle: no Turbo
The long-term picture got more murky over the break, as fan favorite and heart-and-soul winger Brandon Tanev was diagnosed with a season-ending ACL injury.
When Tanev was hit by William Lagesson in the closing minutes of Seattle’s Dec. 18 game against Edmonton, he was essentially carried off the ice and down the tunnel, putting almost no weight on his right leg. He was seen flexing his knee as his teammates propelled him toward the bench, and in that moment, you could just tell that it was something serious.
The team then played it even more coy than usual with announcing any kind of timeline, so the result was unsurprising. Still, it doesn’t make it any easier to accept the idea that the forward who has endeared himself to fans more than any other player will not don a Kraken uniform again this season.
Tanev’s absence will be felt in a lot of ways. Players like Blackwell, Sheahan, Alexander True, and Kole Lind, who have all been in and out of the Kraken lineup at times this season, will be expected to help fill the void left by Tanev. None of those players do the things that Tanev does, though, with his lightning-quick speed and unrelenting forecheck, so Turbo’s absence will require an adjustment from the entire team.
State of the Seattle Kraken
Even before Tanev’s injury, the Kraken were in last place in the Pacific Division going into the break. They trailed the Vancouver Canucks for seventh place by seven points, and they were a whopping 13 points out of the playoff picture.
Can Seattle get back in the playoff race?
Pessimists and believers in simple math would say no, they most likely cannot. As of Wednesday, the Kraken were down to a 0.1 percent chance to make the playoffs, according to MoneyPuck.com, the lowest percentage of any team in the NHL, while HockeyViz has them at 8.2 percent. As Lloyd Christmas once said, “So you’re telling me there’s a chance.”
Heck, even the fact that the Canucks are still in seventh place despite being on an active six-game win streak is telling of just how hard it’s going to be for Seattle to get back in this thing.
Optimists will remind you of the St. Louis Blues in 2018-19, when that club went from last in the NHL on New Year’s Day to Stanley Cup winners in June. What happened for that group was a coaching change (no, we are not recommending Seattle make a change in its inaugural season) and a revelation in the goal crease, as Jordan Binnington burst onto the scene and carried his team to glory.
But the circumstances were quite different for that Blues team. They were a veteran club that had made the playoffs six of the previous seven seasons and had added Ryan O’Reilly in the offseason. The Kraken, on the other hand, are a young expansion team.
Goaltending improvement could turn this around
A Blues-esque goaltending improvement is what could actually unlock sustained success for the Kraken, but it would have to come from their existing netminders. It’s no secret that Kraken goaltending has been among the worst in the league through December in most metrics. With those struggles came visible slumps in play from Seattle when soft goals would go in practically every night.
We’re still hopeful this can turn around, however, and we still believe that the Kraken have an excellent tandem in the crease. Chris Driedger played well in games leading to the holiday break, and Philipp Grubauer, who took a long time to adjust when he first arrived in Colorado in 2018-19, will figure it out. He has played well below his career numbers to this point, so improvement for him is bound to happen.
With their netminders hopefully recharged after a long pause, will that improvement come now? We will get a good idea in the coming days, as Seattle dives back in head first with three games in four days to turn over the calendar year.
The 2022 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship began on Sunday and will continue over the next week. Among the many eyes on the tournament are the eyes of the Seattle Kraken who have two prospects competing.
The most notable prospect is first-round pick Matty Beniers who is an alternate captain with Team USA, but Seattle also will be watching fourth-round pick Ville Ottavainen who is playing for Team Finland.
There might be some Kraken players tuning in as well, as 14 current players at one time represented their countries at the World Junior Championship.
Jordan Eberle represented Canada twice, first in 2009 when he won gold, and then again in 2010, when Canada earned silver.
“As a Canadian kid I grew up watching the World Juniors,” Eberle said. “I still love watching it, to me it’s some of the most exciting hockey. It’s passionate and you watch these kids going and flying around there… for me it’s a Christmas tradition since I’ve been a kid. I always dreamed of playing in it and obviously got to live that.”
Eberle isn’t alone. Joonas Donskoi played twice for his home country Finland and put up some points. He played 13 games over the two tournaments and scored five goals and 11 points.
“I was in World Juniors twice and have a lot of good memories,” Donskoi said. “I think for a young player that’s probably the biggest stage then you can play on and obviously getting ready for NHL draft too for a lot of those guys. There’s a lot of scouts and everything so a lot of good memories.”
Donskoi came off the ice after practice at the Kraken Community Iceplex Monday and was aware that Finland had just completed a 7-1 win against Austria. He said that he tries to watch as much as his hockey schedule and newborn baby allow him to.
Eberle’s magic moment
Of all the Kraken players who made an appearance at the World Juniors, none come close to matching Eberle’s moment in the 2009 tournament. His Canadian team trailed Russia 5-4 in the semifinals and time was winding down.
Canada pulled the goalie for an extra attacker and Eberle was able to find the puck in front of the net and score a backhand goal to tie the game with 5.4 seconds left. The Canadians would go on to win in the shootout – and yes, Eberle converted in the shootout – and then ultimately take home the gold medal.
Eberle scored six goals for Canada that tournament, but the one that tied the game with Russia was the biggest. It’s a goal that inspired a generation of Canadian stars that followed.
Last year, Minnesota Wild prospect Adam Beckman was invited to a stacked Team Canada World Junior camp to try and crack the roster. He had been playing for the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs and had no trouble recalling his favorite World Juniors moment.
“I have quite a few memories,” Beckman said. “The most excited I’ve ever been is Canada playing Russia in the (2009) semifinal. They were down with like 20 seconds and Jordan Eberle had the puck and ripped a backhand. They ended up winning in the shootout.”
Despite leading the WHL in scoring the season prior, Beckman, who was a second-round pick, was sent home.
Beckman isn’t alone. Ask any prospective young Canadian player and they’ll fondly remember watching that game and that moment, inspiring dreams of becoming the next national hero.
“I think at this point it’s certainly made me feel old,” Eberle said when asked about younger players remembering his goal. “When they say that, I kind of get goosebumps, and that’s their childhood memory. It kind of makes me laugh a bit and ages me but at least it’s a very fond memory.”
The World Juniors are being held in Red Deer and Edmonton this year. Last year they were played in the Edmonton bubble with no fans and this year are facing reduced capacity in both cities for COVID precautions.
While we may see another Eberle like moment in this year’s World Juniors, it won’t come with the same noise level of his big goal.
“It’s just a shame that obviously there’s not full capacity the last couple years and they don’t get that experience that I had with the Canadian crowd behind them,” Eberle said. “But nonetheless, it’s a great tournament to watch.”
All of the 2022 World Junior games will be carried live on the NHL Network.
